Footwear article having cord structure

Abstract

A footwear article is provided herein. The footwear article may include a sole coupled to a cord structure. The cord structure may include interconnected bights in a vamp cord and a rand cord forming a loop line extending along at least a portion of the footwear article.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A footwear article, comprising:
 a sole having cord structure attachment openings; and 
 a cord structure including a rand substructure formed by a first cord and a vamp substructure formed by a second cord, the first cord of the rand substructure forming sole attachment bights extending into the cord structure attachment openings coupling the sole to the rand substructure, the first cord of the rand substructure further forming vamp attachment bights interconnected with rand attachment bights formed by the vamp substructure, each vamp attachment bight directly looping through two rand attachment bights. 
 
     
     
       2. The footwear article of  claim 1 , where the vamp substructure is positioned away from the sole. 
     
     
       3. The footwear article of  claim 1 , where the rand substructure comprises one or more rand cords. 
     
     
       4. The footwear article of  claim 1 , where the vamp substructure comprises one or more vamp cords. 
     
     
       5. The footwear article of  claim 1 , where the cord structure further comprises a sole cord extending through the sole attachment bights. 
     
     
       6. The footwear article of  claim 1 , where cords in the cord structure interlock to provide slippable engagement. 
     
     
       7. The footwear article of  claim 1 , further comprising a heel counter coupled to the cord structure, wherein one or more cords in the cord structure extend through the heel counter. 
     
     
       8. The footwear article of  claim 1 , where the cord structure includes a first section and a second section having different degrees of slippable engagement. 
     
     
       9. The footwear article of  claim 5 , where the sole cord extends across the sole from a first side to a second side one or more times. 
     
     
       10. The footwear article of  claim 1 , wherein the cord structure further includes a lace cord interconnected with lace attachment bights formed by the second cord of the vamp substructure.